Lakers vs. Celtics: Would a Boston-Los Angeles Final Really Help the NBA?

Every NBA fan would love to see the Celtics and Lakers in the finals together. Let me rephrase that, most NBA fans would love to see the Celtics and the Lakers in the finals together, especially the media.

Would this series really bring the NBA back to the decades of the 80's and maybe the 90's? I would love for it to, but I don't know if it would.

If they were to be in the finals together, the ratings would be decent because of the T.V. markets alone. Then you throw in all of the other N.B.A. fans, and it brings the ratings up a little more.

So not only does the media want this, the N.B.A. would love this, heck, I want this series.

I can already see the media bringing up the days of Magic and Larry and really hyping it up, to the point where it gets borderline annoying. But there's one thing. It's not the rivalry it was in the 80's.

This would be the first time in over twenty years that these teams would match up for the finals.

I'm 23 years old. So that means, I don't remember that rivalry, the only reason I know how big it was is because of all of the sports history I've seen.

But this may not be the case for even younger N.B.A. fans. I'm talking about kids in the early teens. Kids that barely remember Michael Jordan's second three-peat.

Again, this series would generate a lot of ratings. But, in a long-term basis, that alone would not bring the N.B.A. back to what it was. But it would definitely bring some potential.

In the early 80's you had the Celtics/Lakers. The late 80's you still had the Lakers, but then there was also the Bulls/Pistons. Right after that came Jordan's first three-peat in the early 90's. Then the Houston Rockets winning the finals two years in a row. Jordan comes back and wins another three-peat. Then comes the lock-out.

After the lock-out, a lot of the public lost interest in the N.B.A. The Spurs and the Lakers mostly became the teams to beat, but other than Shaq and Kobe, there really wasn't that big of a draw. There was potential with Dwayne Wade and being clutch, but we all know how that's been going. Fans eventually did come back, but it just wasn't the same.

The way this could bring the N.B.A. back to the way it was is if it kept going after this year. I think the Celtics would have to win (for the record that may have been a biased statement, as I'm not a very big Laker fan). I think this needs to happen partly because of Boston's fans, and because Boston is a very likeable team to the public.

So you have the Celtics win, and then lets say this could happen again next season. The ratings would be even bigger, the "Boston Three-Party" is such an easy target to market that the fan base would be even bigger.

I say this because Kobe Bryant's image is already there, and he has been there for a long time. Marketing him would be nothing new, therefore it would be a little old. Don't get me wrong, he's a likeable guy, but people get bored with the same thing.

So you have a rematch next season, it creates more interest, and the N.B.A. would start gaining momentum again. Then hopefully the Bulls can start gaining momentum as well.

Just as long as the team from Oklahoma City doesn't make it next year.